The Top Ten Incredible Health Benefits of Stretching &
The #1 Recommended Guide to Proper Stretching Technique

Explorers still have not found the Fountain of Youth, but researchers have found one of the closest things to it: routine stretching.

If you truly want to both look and feel younger no matter what your age, stretching your body's muscles on a daily basis is essential. Not only will it increase your flexibility - which is key to preventing various diseases and injuries - but it is also one of the most effective methods to reduce stress and anxiety.

What the Research Says About Stretching

Here are the facts: Stretching is one of the few activities that the various studies have almost unanimously agreed has strong benefits for your health (see some of the studies and articles available online at the bottom of this page.)

Now, research has conflicted on one area: whether stretching before you exercise is truly beneficial to prevent injury during workout. Many of the leading organizations centered on or around fitness strongly advocate stretching before and especially after exercise and physical activity, from the International Sports Sciences Organization to most major league sport organizations to Olympic trainers.

But even studies that suggest exercise may not be beneficial before exercise to prevent injury, such as one published in the March 2004 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, still proclaim one key point:

Without a doubt, stretching is HIGHLY beneficial for increasing flexibility. And what does that mean for you?

The Top Recommended Guide to PROPER Stretching

As with exercise, proper form in stretching has everything to do with achieving the maximum health benefits (and avoiding personal injury.) Most effective is to see - step-by-step - the proper form of each and every stretch in action by an expert versus seeing a single snapshot of the stretch in a book (or just reading about each stretch.)

Stretching Toward a Healthier Life on DVD gets our top recommendation for five key reasons:

1. It presents 15 stretches that stretch all the key muscles groups throughout your entire body (something we did not see with several other guides we reviewed)

2. It only takes about 15-20 minutes per day total to do the complete stretching

3. Stretching expert and host Jacques Gauthier and his wife Dorothee Lavoie demonstrate each stretch in their entirety, including insights on what NOT to do

4. In addition to stretching nearly 100% of the muscles in your body, Gauthier chose 15 stretches that you'll find actually feel good and are easy to do (many stretches in other programs are not)

5. The production quality of the video and sound is excellent. (Many other DVD productions on stretching are not.)

The Incredible Story of Your Host and Stretching Guide, Jacques Gauthier

As you will hear in more detail in the introduction on the DVD, host and stretching expert Jacques Gauthier's own personal story is highly motivating in relation to the stretches presented on the DVD. Why?

Back in 1981, Gauthier's left hand became paralyzed, and then the illness spread to his arms and his feet. Within months, he could barely walk and was becoming quadriplegic.

None of the physicians Gauthier consulted could determine the precise cause of his condition, and ongoing prescriptions for cortisone (steroids) were the only thing that helped relieve the pain and stop the attacks.

Nine years went by and Gauthier's symptoms only got worse, as side-effects from the cortisone included arthritis, osteoporosis and more. Another medication was prescribed, but since all conventional treatments had been failing and Gauthier - suffering with three serious illnesses - decided he had nothing to lose, he decided to take control of his own health.

He had heard about the beneficial health effects of stretching and so decided to try it. Gauthier did it for several hours a day (far more than most people need to) and, though at the forefront in his condition it was initially difficult, within weeks he noted a dramatic reduction in pain and greatly increased mobility. This with a man who was nearly paralyzed from pain.

Long story short, within six months of persevering with stretching exercises for two hours per day, Gauthier had overcome the diseases and recovered - according to him - "100% of my health!" In 1997, Gauthier actually stopped doing his stretching exercises - until health issues started showing again, prompting him back to his stretching exercises (that again eliminated them.) He says this "relapse" episode made an absolute firm believer in stretching's incredible health benefits - and committed to teaching the world about the ideal stretches to achieve health benefits, as well.

While you may not be in the desperate condition Gauthier was in when he first started stretching, and while you may not experience such extreme health benefits from stretching, following the proper techniques presented in his exceptional DVD guide, Stretching Toward a Healthier Life , you will likely be amazed at how much stretching can improve the way you feel physically, mentally and emotionally (not to mention improving your physical appearance!)

Both resistance and agility training reduce back pain and improve health-related quality of life in older women with low bone mass